14 Lunar New Year Celebrations in Massachusetts

This roundup of 14 Lunar New Year celebrations in Boston and beyond offers plenty of opportunity to invite good luck, happiness, and wealth into the Year of the Rat. You’ll find family-friendly events with crafts, performances, parades, activities, delicious treats, and of course, lots of Lion Dances. Also check out this post on 7 ways to celebrate the Lunar New Year with kids, which includes additional ideas for ways to celebrate at home or around town.

Saturday, January 18

1. Celebrate Lunar New Year at the Franklin Park Zoo with lantern crafts, a traditional Lion Dance, a Chinese Dulcimer performance, and more (Boston)

Saturday, January 25

2. Enjoy a traditional Chinese lion dance ceremony at the JFK Library to bring positive and celebratory energy and give blessings, good fortune, happiness, success, and prosperity to all (Boston)

3. Lunar New Year Tales & Treats offers up stories, crafts, treats, and more to celebrate the occasion (Hamilton)

4. The Peabody Essex Museum celebrates the Year of the Rat with music, art-making, and classic traditions, including lion dances performed by Gund Kwok, the only all-women lion and dragon dance group in the country (Salem)

Sunday, January 26

5. Join this Lunar New Year Celebration for lantern-making, a wishing wall, face painting, and spreading good luck with Dragon Dance (Medway)

6. Attend this free Chinese Dulcimer Guzheng Youth Band concert in celebration of the Year of the Rat and Chinese New Year (Newton)

Tuesday, January 28

7. Experience Vietnam through sound, dance, cuisine, and more at this Vietnamese Lunar New Year Celebration (Dorchester)

Friday, January 31-Sunday, February 2

8. Explore how local communities celebrate Lunar New Year through dance, games, music, and art with a focus on Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese traditions at the Boston Children’s Museum (Boston)

Saturday, February 1

9. Ring in the Year of the Rat with free admission to the MFA Lunar New Year Celebration and explore Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese traditions with a variety of activities, demonstrations, and performances throughout the day (Boston)

10. Enjoy a lion dance, New Year’s food from various countries, and opportunities to make New Year’s decorations at this McMullen Museum of Art Lunar New Year Celebration (Boston)

Sunday, February 2

11. Boston's Chinatown hosts the biggest Lunar New Year parade in New England with troupes of colorful lion dance dancers ringing in the Year of the Rat (Boston)

12. Families are welcome to learn the steps of the traditional Chinese Lion Dance at this drop-in workshop in Chinatown (Boston)

13. Don’t miss this 2020 Lunar New Year Festival with food, fun, music, and dance (Quincy)

Thursday, February 6

14. The Berklee Chinese New Year Concert features unique arrangements of music styles such as pop, rock, jazz, R&B, and traditional Chinese music, plus dance and other forms of performance focused on the theme of love (Boston)